Thomas MacDermot (26 June 1870 – 8 October 1933)
was a
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
n poet, novelist, and editor, editing the ''
Jamaica Times'' for more than 20 years. He was "probably the first Jamaican writer to assert the claim of the
West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
to a distinctive place within English-speaking culture".
[Michael Hughes, ''A Companion to West Indian Literature'', Collins, 1979, p. 75.] He also published under the pseudonym Tom Redcam (derived from his surname spelled in reverse).
["Redcam, Tom (1870-1933)"]
Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly (eds), ''Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English'', Routledge (1994), 2nd edition 2005, p. 1338. He was Jamaica's first
Poet Laureate.
Early life
Thomas Henry MacDermot was born in
Clarendon Parish, Jamaica, the third of five children,
"Remembering Tom Redcam: Jamaica’s first Poet Laureate" National Library of Jamaica, 26 June 2017 and spent much of his childhood in
Trelawny Parish, Trelawny.
[ Mervyn Morris]
"Poet Laureate Remarks at Investiture Ceremony
King’s House, 21 May 2014". He was educated at the Falmouth Academy and at the Church of England Grammar School in
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...
.
Career
He was a teacher before taking up journalism, at ''The Jamaica Post'', ''
The Daily Gleaner'' and the ''
Jamaica Times'', of which he was editor for 20 years.
He worked to promote
Jamaican literature through all of his writing, starting a weekly short story contest in the ''Jamaica Times'' in 1899. Notable among the young writers he helped and encouraged are
Claude McKay
Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (September 15, 1890See Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance'' (New York, Schocken, 1987) p. 377 n. 19. As Cooper's authoritative biography explains, McKay's family predate ...
and
H. G. de Lisser.
In 1903, MacDermot started the ''All Jamaica Library'', a series of novellas and short stories written by Jamaicans about Jamaica that were reasonably priced to encourage local readers. Alongside his work as a journalist, he wrote two novels. The first, ''Becka’s Buckra Baby'', is said to mark the beginning of modern Caribbean writing.
"Caribbean Literature", Alexandra Street Press.
/ref> MacDermot's poems were not collected into a single volume until 1951. He was posthumously proclaimed Jamaica's first Poet Laureate for the period 1910–33 by the Jamaican branch of the Poetry League.
Death
He died in an English nursing home in 1933, aged 63.
Bibliography
* ''Becka's Buckra Baby'' (1903), Times Printery, Jamaica.
* ''One Brown Girl And ¼'' (1909), Times Printery, Jamaica.
* ''Orange Valley and Other Poems'' (1951), Kingston, Jamaica: Pioneer Press.
References
External links
''Becka’s Buckra Baby''
from the Digital Library of the Caribbean (1904)
''One Brown Girl and - a Jamaica Story''
from the Digital Library of the Caribbean (1909)
*Also in the ''All Jamaica Library'', but not written by Thomas MacDermot
''Maroon Medicine,''
by E. A. Dodd (listed as E. Snod) from the Digital Library of the Caribbean
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdermot, Thomas
20th-century Jamaican poets
Jamaican poets laureate
Jamaican male poets
20th-century Jamaican male writers
20th-century Jamaican novelists
Jamaican male novelists
1870 births
1933 deaths
19th-century Jamaican poets